The story of Em begins with the story of our Chef, Ly Nguyen. Chef Ly grew up on the outskirts of an idyllic small town in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, about 50 miles north of the Nha Trang. Raised on a farm where jungle, mountains, rivers, and the ocean met, young Ly adored her family’s fruit trees and delighted in dining on the bounty of the sea. Her family still jokes that you can leave a suitcase full of money with Ly and you won’t find a dollar missing, but if you leave her unattended by a fruit tree it’s going to be picked clean.